“Any attempt to use the liberal language of free trade to
create something that excludes other countries and puts them in
a disadvantageous position will be met with the reaction of
those countries to work together and set up something else,”
Dmitriev said in an interview in Berlin.

Leaders in the U.S. and Europe have pledged to move ahead
with a free-trade deal as a remedy to fight unemployment and
boost growth. The EU says an accord may add 0.5 percentage point
to the bloc’s gross domestic product, and 0.4 percentage point
to U.S. GDP, by 2027.

“Politicians really exaggerate sometimes the effects of
free trade,” and an agreement would “not be a panacea to the
world crisis,” Dmitriev said. At the same time, he said he
“would not be surprised if there are some bilateral discussions
on a Russian free-trade agreement with China and some other
Asian countries.”

RDIF, a Kremlin-backed investment fund, is trying to lure
foreign investment in Russian equity through a co-investment
model as the government tries to wean the world’s largest energy
exporter off its dependence on commodity sales.

The fund, founded in 2011, invested $2.1 billion in 2012,
with RDIF contributing $500 million and foreign co-investors
$1.6 billion. Deals include the acquisition of shares in the
February 2013 initial public offering of the Moscow Exchange.

The fund will announce three to four deals with German
business investing in Russia this year, Dmitriev said. The fund,
which can invest as much as 20 percent of its capital outside
Russia, is also looking at German companies, he said.

“We are looking at a bunch of middle-sized companies that
have some interesting technology or products that would do so
much better if they are part of a supply-chain to Russia,”
Dmitriev said. Interesting targets may be companies in the
automotive or mechanical-equipment industry, he said.